Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspectives from Asian America and Hawai‘i

ABSTRACT

Okamura reviews the 2008 US presidential campaign and the election of Barack Obama as a ‘post-racial candidate’ in terms of two different meanings of ‘post-racialism’, namely, colour blindness and multiculturalism. He also discusses his campaign and election from the perspective of Asian America and Hawai'i given that Obama has been claimed as ‘the first Asian American president’ and as a ‘local’ person from Hawai‘i where he was born and spent most of his youth. In both cases, Obama has been accorded these racialized identities primarily because of particular cultural values he espouses and cultural practices he engages in that facilitate his seeming transcendence of racial boundaries and categories generally demarcated by phenotype and ancestry. Okamura contends that proclaiming Obama as an honorary Asian American and as a local from Hawai‘i inadvertently lends support to the post-racial America thesis and its false assertion of the declining significance of race: first, by reinforcing the ‘model minority’ stereotype of Asian Americans and, second, by affirming the widespread view of Hawai‘i as a model of multiculturalism.     

‘A curious relationship’: Barack Obama,the 1960s and the election of 2008

ABSTRACT

Ward explores the diverse ways in which memories, understandings and misunderstandings of the 1960s were mobilized during the 2008 election cycle. At the time, Barack Obama's campaign and triumph were hailed by many as marking a series of a decisive breaks with the past, notably with the culture wars and fiercely ideological political partisanship unleashed in the late 1960s. Others suggested that Obama represented a new kind of candidate who somehow transcended, or might even heal, the racial divisions in the United States, in a fanciful vogue for ‘post-racialism’ that Ward argues was also connected to popular conceptions of the 1960s and, in particular, to a misreading of the social philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr and his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. While some commentators stressed rupture and discontinuity with the past in interpreting Obama's victory, others—friend and foe alike—were keen to stress continuities with the past, often explicitly with a 1960s routinely, if simplistically, parsed into ‘good’ early and ‘bad’ later periods. ThusWard considers Obama's connections to the civil rights and black power movements, as well as to other 1960s organizing traditions, charismatic leaders and conceptions of federal government, arguing that the decade continues to offer an important, if ambiguous touchstone in contemporary American politics and social memory.     

Barack Hussein Obama: the use of history in the creation of an ‘American’ president

ABSTRACT

From the time of his nomination as the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential candidate onwards, Barack Obama was the target of a panoply of political attacks. Conservatives, Republicans and even some Democrats played on his alterity in a way that previous non-white political hopefuls, particularly the Reverend Jesse Jackson, had not had to endure. If the intricate twists and turns of Obama's past did not make those attacks particularly surprising, the way in which he chose to deal with them was. In what stands as a deliberate pre-emptive attack, Obama used two substantive texts, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, to create and shape a historical narrative of his own past in such a way as to present himself to the US voting public as a truly American figure, worthy of the presidency. By the time he was running for high office, therefore, Obama had already used his knowledge of the discipline of history to create a usable past with which he and his supporters could denude many of those political attacks of their potency, whether they were focused on the years of his upbringing in an Islamic state, his familial ties to Kenya, his religious background or his purported links to radicalism.     

奥巴马政府"巧实力"外交政策评析

奥巴马政府就职后逐步实施了巧实力外交政策。巧实力外交政策既是出于对布什政府饱受争议的外交政策的反思,也是基于美国国内状况和国际局势的综合考量。从目前情况看,修补布什政府时期的外交创伤、提升美国软实力、倚重多边主义,在自身实力相对下降的背景下维持美国霸权地位成为奥巴马政府巧实力外交政策的主要内容。巧实力外交政策对中美关系也产生了重要影响。     

A dog in the fight

Holly Hughes’ “A Dog in the Fight” is a queer and feminist literary performance that models a feminist politics of performance that stands as alternative to performances of power that come from the officially anointed space of politics. In this piece, Hughes meditates on the queer relationship between US Presidents and their faithful companions, their dogs. Refusing to jump through the “ceiling” to get into the White House, Hughes offers critique of power from her own couch, recounting her hopes and disappointments in the young Obama administration, while forcing a hated former leader (George W. Bush) from the White House into her performance space as she offers up both a critique of his politics and admits to an uncomfortable affiliation with his love of dogs. What emerges from this performance is a critical call to continue an engagement with struggles for social justice from the fecund and powerful places that exist outside of the authorized institutions of politics, no matter what women and men take up positions within these institutions.     

奥巴马政府东亚政策的调整及中国的应对

对东亚政策的调整是奥巴马政府外交政策调整的主要方面。调整的内容包括,巩固与东亚盟国的关系,重视发展与东盟及东南亚国家的关系,而调整与中国政策的关系,无疑是美国东亚政策的核心。奥巴马政府对东亚政策的调整给中国外交政策带来了挑战,但如果处理得当,机遇明显大于挑战:美国东亚政策的调整可以促进中国推动国际秩序朝着更加公正合理方向发展的实践和规则的制定;为中美合作创造拓展更多的领域、提供更多的机会,特别是在非传统安全领域;也有利于中美关系的未来协调发展。     

冷战后美国对华战略转变的根本逻辑与手段——兼论奥巴马政府的对华政策

奥巴马政府对华战略的变化,更多的是冷战后美国对华战略转变的一个延续。冷战后,美国不断开辟新领域,试图将中国塑造为敌人或对手,但屡战屡败,导致多届美国政府对华战略在任期内和问题领域内的双重起伏。美国对华战略转变背后的根本逻辑是美国民族主义化的爱国主义,其具体手段是安全化理论所论述的安全化/非安全化。它曾经并将继续主导美国的对华战略转变。在两国共建21世纪积极合作全面的中美关系和应对共同挑战的伙伴关系的同时,这一逻辑和手段可能导致双方在三个领域内的潜在争端:双边关系领域内的气候变化与能源—环境、中国制造产品等议题;多边关系中中美关系涉及的第三方因素;中美在国际体系规范领域的斗争。     

韩美同盟的现状:以战略同盟构想为中心

本文旨在以李明博政府的韩美战略同盟构想为中心,对韩美同盟的现状进行探讨。李明博政府正力图将现有韩美安保同盟发展为一揽子战略同盟,以此提升国力。由于面临着霸权的现实性局限,深感全球层面的同盟合作变得更加切合实际的美国奥巴马政府正在接受这一构想,但是对于具体的方案,两国的理解并不完全一致。而这一点正是本文的要旨之所在。     

改变与延续:奥巴马政府的东亚政策与东亚一体化

本文旨在探讨奥巴马政府的东亚政策及其对东亚一体化的影响.作者认为:奥巴马政府的东亚政策可以用"安全"、"繁荣"、"人权"和"环保"四个词来概括,在安全和经贸方面大体会延续前任政府的政策,在环保和人权方面会进行一定的变革,在经贸方面也会和以往有所不同.总体而言,奥巴马的东亚政策对东亚一体化既有积极的一面,但也必须认识到其消极的一面.最后,针对美国的关注与担忧及如何推动东亚一体化,本文提出了一些政策建议.     

No Country for Old Men?

The 2008 election may be all about “change,” but which candidate benefits when both claim the same mantle? The author investigates the question with the help of one of the greatest architects of change in American politics, Abraham Lincoln. As a young man, Lincoln detailed the attractiveness of change to youthful candidates and voters alike.